page_title: Chinese people in Myanmar
section_title: Modern era
hierarchical_section_title: Chinese people in Myanmar / History / Modern era
caption_attribution_description: English: A dance troupe performs Chinese Dragon Dance during Chinese New Year Festival in Chinatown, Yangon, Myanmar on 9 February 2011. မြန်မာဘာသာ: တရုတ် နှစ်သစ်ကူးပွဲတော်ကာလ အတွင်း အကအဖွဲ့တစ်ခုမှ တရုတ်ရိုးရာ နဂါးအကဖြင့် ဖေဖော်ဝါရီလ ၉ ရက်နေ့၊ ၂၀၁၁ ခုနှစ်က ကပြဖျော်ဖြေစဉ်
context_page_description: Burmese Chinese, also Sino-Burmese or Tayoke, are a group of overseas Chinese born or raised in Myanmar. Burmese Chinese constitute one group of overseas Chinese and is relatively small compared to other overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. Although the Chinese officially make up three percent of the population, the actual figure is believed to be much higher. Among the under-counted Chinese populations are: those of mixed background; those that have registered themselves as “ethnic Bamar” to avoid discrimination; those that moved to Myanmar from China during earlier Qing Dynasty because of Manchu rule; new Chinese immigrants and traders that have resided in Upper Myanmar since the 1990s but are not counted due to the lack of reliable census taking. As of 2012, the Burmese Chinese population is estimated to be at 1.6 million.
  Burmese Chinese are a well established middle class ethnic group and are well represented in all levels of Burmese society. Burmese Chinese also play a leading role in Myanmar's business sector and dominate the Burmese economy today.
context_section_description: In 1988, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) came to power, and gradually loosened the government's role in the economy, encouraging private sector growth and foreign investment. This liberalization of state's role in the economy, if slight and uneven, nonetheless gave the ethnic Chinese-led businesses extra space to expand and reassert their economic power. Today, the majority of retail, wholesale and import trade businesses are run by the Burmese Chinese today. For example, Sein Gayha (စိန်ဂေဟာ), a major retailer that began in Yangon's Chinatown in 1985, is owned by a Hakka Chinese family. Moreover, four of the five largest commercial banks in Myanmar, Myanmar Universal Bank, Yoma Bank, Myanmar Mayflower Bank, and the Asia Wealth Bank, were all founded by Sino-Burmese.
  Today, the majority of Burmese Chinese live in the major cities of Yangon, Mandalay, Taunggyi, Bago, and their surrounding areas. Although there are Chinatowns (တရုတ်တန်း; tayoke tan) in the major cities, the Chinese are widely dispersed throughout the country. The northern region of Myanmar has seen a recent influx of mainland Chinese migrant workers, black market traders and gamblers. In Kachin State, which borders China in three directions, Standard Mandarin is the lingua franca.
  Upper Myanmar has seen a demographic shift resulting from the recent immigration of many Mainland Chinese to Mandalay Region, Shan, and Kachin States. Ethnic Chinese now constitute an estimated 30 to 40% of Mandalay's population. Huge swaths of land in city centre left vacant by the fires were later purchased, mostly by the ethnic Chinese, many of whom were recent immigrants from Yunnan. The Chinese influx accelerated after the current military government came to power in 1988. With the Burmese government turning a blind eye, many Chinese immigrants from Yunnan (and also from Sichuan) poured into Upper Myanmar in the 1990s, settling in Mandalay. In the 1990s alone, about 250,000 to 300,000 Yunnanese were estimated to have migrated to Mandalay. Their arrival has been vital in the doubling of Mandalay's population from about 500,000 in 1980 to one million in 2008. Chinese festivals are now firmly embedded in the city's cultural calendar. The strong influx of Mainland Chinese immigrants into Mandalay coupled with the presence of strong Chinese economic clout resulted the subsequent displacement of indigenous Burmese to the outskirts of the city creating racial tensions between the two communities.
  There are also substantial Burmese Chinese communities outside of Myanmar, particularly in Taiwan, Macau, Hong Kong, Singapore, United States (such as New York City's Henry Street) and Australia. Zhonghe District, near Taipei, Taiwan is home to 40,000 Burmese Chinese (2008), one of the largest communities outside of Myanmar.
caption: Chinese New Year festivities in Yangon's Chinatown in 2011.
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